Here’s How to Celebrate an Eco-Friendly Ganesh Festival

Here are 5 ways to celebrate an eco-friendly Ganesh Utsav.

5 ways to celebrate Eco-Friendly Ganesh Festival.

Photo: iStock

Ganesh Festival is celebrated with much pomp and grandeur in several states across India, but Maharashtra is the centre of attraction of this extravagant 10-day occasion.

Every year, lakhs of devotees bring Ganesha idols home. After the rituals are complete, these idols are later immersed in water at the end of the festival.

The tradition is great and so is the sentiment attached to it. However, we must also focus on not hampering the environment while celebrating and following our traditions. Here’s how you can celebrate an eco-friendly Ganesha Chaturthi and do your part in helping the environment.

5 Ways To Celebrate Eco-Friendly Ganesh Festival

• Eco-Friendly Ganesha

Most idols are made of non-degradable material.Photo: iStock

Usually, the Ganesha idols that are available in the market are either made of plaster of paris or some other material which is not biodegradable. When immersed in the water bodies, these can cause water pollution and harm the life underwater.

You can get idols made from eco-friendly material and can also immerse them in a bucket or tub at home.

• Artificial Immersion Tanks

Immersing the idols in an artificial water tank would help the environment.Photo: iStock

Even if the idols are made of non-degradable material, you can help the environment. All you need to is instead of immersing the idols in the natural water bodies, immerse them in the artificially made tanks. This practice is slowly becoming popular in certain cities and people are getting aware that the same water is not used for drinking and irrigation, which can easily cause several health hazards.

• Save Energy

You can control the use of energy during the celebrations.Photo: iStock

You can contribute to the conservation of environment by limiting the use of energy. You can use the lamps, decorative lights and loudspeakers when necessary, instead of leaving them on throughout the day. You can look use the lights that consume low energy.

• Eco-Friendly Decoration

Use Eco-Friendly material to decorate during Ganesh Utsav.Photo: iStock

Avoid using anything made of plastic. You can simply use fresh flowers, leaves and diyas to decorate the pandals for Ganesh festival. You can also make rangolis and add natural beauty to your Ganpati celebrations. Instead of sewing store-bought plastic bandhanwars, you can buy the ones made of flowers, clay, thread, clothes, etc. You can even make one at home and add a personal touch.

• Limiting the Number of Pandals

Usually each household installs their own Ganpati.Photo: iStock

Usually, there are separate Ganesha idols installed in each house, society/ neighborhood. This leads to a huge amount of energy consumed, too many idols being immersed in the water bodies and limitless resources being used.

Instead of having multiple Ganpati pandals, if the number of pandals are consciously reduced and large groups of people together have one pandal, this will not only reduce the amount of resources needed but also reduce the burden on the environment.